The idea of a hospital specifically to care for the paralysed came to Johanna Chandler
and her siblings, Louisa and Edward, after the death of their beloved
grandmother, who had looked after them since they had been orphaned.
The old lady had been paralysed by a stroke for a number of
years, but no instititution catered for such patients.

To raise money for the venture the women made and sold small ornaments
decorated with shells and beads. After two years they had raised
£200. They also approached the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman David Wire, himself partially paralysed, who expressed sympathy and interest.

The Lord Mayor called a special public meeting on 2nd November 1859,
which was held in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House with his
wealthy and influential contacts in attendance. Some £800
was raised, and the meeting resolved to establish a hospital for paralysed and epileptic patients.

While the Chandlers had wished it to be a place where 'incurables'
could be cared for, the Lord Mayor insisted that it should be a special
hospital where patients could be investigated and treated, with a
possibility of a cure. He became the Chairman of the Hospital
Committee, and Edward Chandler its Secretary.

A house in Queen Square (No. 24) was leased at an annual rent of
£110 and the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic
opened in the spring of 1860. On the ground floor it had a small
Out-Patients Department (in the front and back parlours) and a dispensary
(in the butler's pantry). Upstairs was a ward with 8 beds for
female patients; a ward for male patients was added in June 1860.
Most patients were treated free of charge; those who could afford
it, paid 7 shillings (35p) a week towards their keep.

Only potentially treatable patients were admitted, having been assessed
by a clinician in the Out-Patients Department. If, after a probationary period,
it was decided that an in-patient was incurable, they were discharged
into the care of their family, but could be followed-up as an
out-patient.

In 1866 the lease for the house next-door, No. 26 Queen Square, was
purchased for £3,000 (as was the lease for No. 24). The
Hospital then had 36 beds. The ground floor contained the
Out-Patients Department, a Board Room, a consulting room, office,
dispensary, laboratory, a porter's room and a ward with an adjacent Day
Room. On the upper floors were two wards, the bathrooms, an
electrical treatment room and gymnasium, and a padded room.
Despite their seemingly hopeless states, patients were subjected
to a
variety of treatment regimes intended to stimulate their torpid muscles
- massage, eletrical treatments, sulphur baths, etc.

It was the first hospital to institute Day Rooms - comfortable,
carpeted places with flowers, paintings and a Library, where patients
could relax away from their wards. It was
also one of the first hospitals to have a gymasium and facilities for balneotherapy, to employ male nurses, and to arrange
concerts and entertainments for the patients. In the summer, patients were taken on drives to the countryside.

A new ward opened in 1876 for middle-class patients - gentlewomen of
limited means, governesses, clerks and the wives and children of
businessmen who were unable to afford medical treatment in their own
homes, but willing to pay a portion of their maintenance while in
hospital.

By 1878 the Hospital was treating some 3,000 patients a year, many of
whom proved to be incurable (they were awarded a pension by the
Hospital Committee, ranging from £10 to £22 a year).

During the 1880s the two houses were demolished and the Hospital rebuilt. The east wing
- on a site in Powis Place, built at a cost of £10,000 - was
officially opened in 1881 by Princess Christian. It contained the
Out-Patients Department, with a ward on the upper floor. The west
wing was officially opened in 1885 by the Prince of Wales (later King
Edward VII). It had cost £60,000 to build. Named the Albany Wing,
it was a memorial to the Prince's late brother, the Duke of Albany, who
had helped secure funds for the building. The Hospital then had
170 beds.

In 1909, the Jubilee of the Hospital, following a collection made by
the Duchess of Albany, the Out-Patients Department and other
departments were enlarged and improved. Electricity and a
telephone system were installed. The new extensions were opened
by King Edward VII.

During WW1, in 1915, the Hospital became a section of the First London
General Hospital;
wards with 70 beds were reserved for wounded sailors
and soldiers with neurological injuries. King George V and Queen
Mary visited in February 1916. In 1917 a Massage School opened in
two Georgian houses at Nos. 29 and 30 Queen Square,
in conjunction with University College Hospital; it also contained a
hostel for students (the houses were demolished in 1937). In
1918, following a request by the Ministry of Pensions, the Hospital
Committee assumed responsibility for the management of the 30-bedded Home for Discharged Sailors and Soldiers in Queen Square, Lonsdale House
and the Bray Court Hospital for Neurathenic Discharged Sailors and
Soldiers in Maidenhead.

In 1926 the Hospital was renamed the National Hospital for the Relief
and Cure of Diseases of the Nervous System including Paralysis and
Epilepsy.

In 1935 the Rockefeller Foundation offered the Hospital £120,000
towards a new building to house an institute for the teaching and study
of neurology, providing it could raise a similiar sum to complete and
equip it. The Earl of Athlone, President of the Hospital,
immediately launched an appeal to raise the money.

In 1936 Nos. 29 and 30 Queen Square were demolished and, on 30th April
1937, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, laid the foundation stone
for the new wing to be built on their site.

The Queen Mary Wing
was officially opened on 19th July 1938 by the Queen herself.
It had been funded mainly by the Rockefeller Foundation and Lord
Nuffield, and contained a surgical department and increased
research facilities.

In the same year, a new organ was installed in the chapel, financed by an anonymous donor.

As the prospect of war loomed in 1939, a First Aid Post was set up on
the ground floor and basement of the new Wing. It was
provided by the Holborn Borough Council under the Ministry of Health's
emergency wartime service scheme for anticipated civilian casualties
from bombing raids.

In September 1940 the new building received a direct hit, causing much damage to the upper floors. In December, Elizabeth Morgan Ward was destroyed by fire from incendiary bombs. Activities had to be curtailed, but surgery was undertaken at
other hospitals, especially Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath.

By 1943, because of war damage, only 50 of the 229 beds were
open. Several Medical Officers of the Canadian Army acted as
guest
non-resident House Physicians for short periods.

During 1943 some 69 patients were admitted with multiple sclerosis and
48 with epilepsy. The remaining admissions suffered from
neuralgia, hysteria, unspecified neurosis, syphilis, sciatica,
congenital or acquired syringomyelia, or nerve tumours.

After the war, in 1947 the Hospital merged with the Maida Vale Hospital.
Both joined the NHS in 1948 as postgraduate teaching
hospitals, named the National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases.

In 1990 the name of the Hospital was changed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

During the 1990s the Powis Place Pavilion, built in 1881, was
demolished to make way for the Chandler Wing, which opened in 1994.

In 1996 the Hospital became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2001 it had 244 beds.

Present
status (October 2014)

Today the Hospital is known as the
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the largest of its
kind in the United Kingdom.

Queen Square is almost entirely given over to
buildings providing health care - investigation, treatment or research.
The east side contains the Hospital and the Royal London Hospital
for Integrated Care (formerly the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital). The former Italian Hospital
on the south side is now part of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for
Children. The west side contains several buildings for medical
research belonging to University College London. The Institute of
Neurology is located on the northeast corner of the square.

The Albany Wing, at Nos. 25-32 Queen Square, opened in 1885.

The main entrance to the Hospital.
A plaque dedicating the building to the Duke of Albany, who died in 1884.

The Queen Mary Wing opened in 1938.

The foundation stone for the Queen Mary Wing.
The Chandler Wing in Powis Place opened in 1994.

A new building at No. 33 Queen Square links the Hospital to the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Care.

The former Institute for Public Health, on the northern side of Queen
Square, at No. 23, now contains offices for the Hospital and the
Institute of Neurology.

Queen Square House was built in the 1970s and houses most departments of the Institute of Neurology.

Its entrance is at the lower ground level.
Queen Square House is located to the northeast of Queen Square, just to the north of the Albany Wing (seen on the right).

Alexandra House
at No. 17 Queen Square, a tall neo-Georgian building, contains the Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.

St
John's House at No. 12 Queen Square, once the home of a Church of England training
institute for nurses, now houses the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (the
Functional Imaging Laboratory) (left). A statue of St John the Evangelist holding a chalice with a snake is inset into the building's fascia.

Charles Symonds House at Nos. 8-11 Queen Square, a former medical examination hall, contains the
Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases and the Dementia Research Centre.
The entrance to Charles Symonds House.
A roundel with the logo of the Hospital on the railings of Charles Symonds House.

(Author unstated) 1917 List of the various hospitals treating military cases in the United Kingdom. London, H.M.S.O.
(Author unstated) 1935 The Hospital World. British Journal of Nursing (November), 305.